Vanderbilt Students: We Were Oppressed!

Last week, students at Vanderbilt University invaded the administration building at the school to conduct a sit-in to protest Israel and demand the school divest its investments in Israel.

To put it mildly, the students beclowned themselves, and surprisingly the school, while being fairly gentle with the students, didn’t buckle to their demands or let them off scott free. They have actually suspended most of the students involved, and with great reason. Not only did they trespass, they actually used (minor) force to enter the building. 

NEW: Yesterday Vanderbilt students pushed their way into a campus building to conduct a sit-in in the lobby of the chancellor’s office: pic.twitter.com/2HXQ6Md1Y2

— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) March 27, 2024

Much hilarity ensued when students were shocked that the school wouldn’t allow them to wander around, go to the bathroom, exit the building, and return, or do anything but sit there. The students expected to be fed, watered, pampered, and embraced for their stunning bravery, but the school did none of that. 

Instead, they waited the protesters out, and given that the students think a hunger strike is missing a meal they capitulated in less than a day. 

Vanderbilt has suspended at least 7 students for occupying the lobby of the chancellor’s office today.

They’re there because the admin cancelled a student BDS referendum. pic.twitter.com/NreEXR3JI9

— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) March 26, 2024

Students are outraged that the school didn’t pamper them, and are now protesting their treatment as if they were placed in a Gulag. A Gulag you could escape by exiting the room they were in, but a Gulag nonetheless. They had no food, no bathroom access, and no–get this–“medical treatment.”

What, do they need a doctor by them every moment of the day? Perhaps a psychologist complete with coloring books and soothing music to accompany them when they are not throwing a tantrum?

UPDATE: some of the students seem to be panicking.

They called 9-1-1 because they’re worried one of them could go into toxic shock.

They’re also worried she’ll be arrested if she leaves the building. https://t.co/U08EzaYLG2 pic.twitter.com/NrXAQvuxeu

— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) March 27, 2024

Yes. Yes they do. 

“We were deprived of medical attention, we were deprived of sleep, we were deprived of food, water, resources.”

“In jail I experienced better conditions than at Vanderbilt University.”

A Vanderbilt protestor who was arrested talks about his experiences:

H/t @lawyergonerogue pic.twitter.com/ikI9SSjhlg

— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) March 28, 2024

The palpable outrage is a wonder to watch, as the students apparently feel at least as outraged about their treatment for behaving like spoiled brats is as bad as the (non-existent) “genocide” in Israel. No doubt, in their minds, it is all part of the same system, and in a way they are right. 

It is called being an adult and living in the imperfect world we do, rather than a utopia in which terrorists don’t exist and need extermination, and children are given everything they want. 

I can’t help but think of this parody of Frasier taking a call from CHAZ: pic.twitter.com/CTyWxNbzbc

— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) March 28, 2024

Now the students are claiming that they are being made “houseless” by being expelled, as if they have squatter’s rights to a dorm room. They are so incapable of understanding the privilege they have that it doesn’t occur to them that they are the ones who broke the rules and that they are facing the consequences of their actions. 

Martin Luther King wrote his famous letter from a Birmingham Jail, which galvanized the country. These Vanderbilt students see themselves in the same mold, not understanding that they are simply spoiled brats, as oppressed as a housecat who is fed homemade gourmet food every day. 

The whole affair reminds me of a Monty Python movie, because Monty Python actually predicted the level of absurdity that we see around us today. 

But there is a serious element to this, and one we shouldn’t miss in the midst of our schadenfreude: these students have been consistently failed by the adults around them. 

Sure, they are adults and should know better; but people learn to be adults and not perpetual children through education, and they have been groomed to behave exactly like this by an educational system that turns them into mentally fragile tantrum factories. 

Mental health among America’s youth has been cratering in the midst of an unprecedented focus on their mental health. Social and emotional learning makes them the opposite of rational and resilient. They are emotional wrecks, and that is on the adults who raised them, both inside and outside the educational system. 

So while I applaud Vanderbilt for imposing consequences for reprehensible actions, I also note that this was probably the first time these students faced any consequences for throwing tantrums. 

That isn’t on the students.